Wattage

Online platform that made creating hardware easy

Description

Wattage was an online platform with an ambitious goal: break the entry barrier for hardware design. The ideal future Wattage envisioned was that of a world in which anyone could customize their electronics without needing to have any in-depth knowledge in the field. Anyone with an internet connection could start creating and customizing hardware by making use of the startup software. Once the user had all the specifications ready the product would be created with 3D printing, packed and shipped to the customer.

Stats

Category

Software and Hardware

Country

Canada

Started

In 2014

Closed

By 2015

Number of Founders

Three

Name of Founders

Brett Hagman, Jeremy Bell, Peter Nitsch

Number of Employees

Between 51 And 100

Number of Funding Rounds

1

Total Funding Amount

$200K

Number of Investors

No Data

Precise Cause of Failure

No Market Need

Business Outcome

Shut Down

Cause of Failure

Wattage founder Jeremy Bell
shared in a Medium post some of the reason he thinks the startup failed.

Among the first reasons he
listed was the fact that they failed to gain traction and validate the
existence of market interest for the product. In the early phase of
development, their main focus was on demonstrating that the idea could
technically be carried out and it was taken for granted that people would see
it as a needed solution. Without any proof that people would actually adopt the
service, it was difficult to convince investors to fund the project. All sorts of doubts about viability and
scalability started popping up and the team couldn’t provide definitive - or
convincing enough - answers.

Wattage was on many points
too much ahead of its time, and the full potential of their idea might have
been overlooked by prospect investors and the target market. However, in a few
years, as technological advances will render customization easier, Wattage (or
another company) might re-introduce the concept and carry it out in a
successful manner.

A big resource for entrepreneurs and startup owners, in which we have collected and analyzed why +100 big companies have failed. Learn from mistakes, and avoid being part of the 90% of businesses that fail.

Wattage was an online platform with an ambitious goal: break the entry barrier for hardware design. The ideal future Wattage envisioned was that of a world in which anyone could customize their electronics without needing to have any in-depth knowledge in the field. Anyone with an internet connection could start creating and customizing hardware by making use of the startup software. Once the user had all the specifications ready the product would be created with 3D printing, packed and shipped to the customer.

Cause of Failure

Wattage founder Jeremy Bell
shared in a Medium post some of the reason he thinks the startup failed.

Among the first reasons he
listed was the fact that they failed to gain traction and validate the
existence of market interest for the product. In the early phase of
development, their main focus was on demonstrating that the idea could
technically be carried out and it was taken for granted that people would see
it as a needed solution. Without any proof that people would actually adopt the
service, it was difficult to convince investors to fund the project. All sorts of doubts about viability and
scalability started popping up and the team couldn’t provide definitive - or
convincing enough - answers.

Wattage was on many points
too much ahead of its time, and the full potential of their idea might have
been overlooked by prospect investors and the target market. However, in a few
years, as technological advances will render customization easier, Wattage (or
another company) might re-introduce the concept and carry it out in a
successful manner.